


You and I Were Restless Things

by slash4femme



Series: So They Say, for Everything a Reason [2]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Amanda being a bisexual brilliant motorcycle riding badass, F/F, F/M, Motorcycles, Oral Sex, Serak being very Vulcan, Sexy Times, but also very sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 09:52:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3406262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slash4femme/pseuds/slash4femme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarek leaves and Amanda moves on with her life. But when he unexpectedly returns they will have to face what is between them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You and I Were Restless Things

**Author's Note:**

> The long awaited sex story in the series. This one had more of a conclusion than the last but I may end up writing more in this series if I have time.

I.

Lieutenant Commander Gayatri Mukherjee was everything Amanda had thought she was when they'd first met, beautiful, alive and brilliant.

Everything Gayatri does was big and loud, she loved bright colors, warm weather and music you could dance to. She was a fantastic cook, who loved good food and good wine or beer. There was very often a group of people in her apartment in the evenings, scientists and Starfleet officers eating, drinking and enjoys conversations about engineering or design.  

Gayatri had a tendency to storm about the apartment when she'd working on a particularly hard engineering problem and dance to the worse, most cliched Bollywood music she can find once she's solved it.

She had a cat, Efram Cochrane, a huge, old gray animal that looked like he'd gotten half his face mauled off in a fight. Her apartment was full of more house plants than Amanda had ever seen crammed into one small San Francisco flat.    

Gayatri also enjoyed sex, her body warm where she pressed against Amanda, her clever fingers finding all the right places to touch to make Amanda moan.

She asked Amanda to move in with her after six months of dinners shared together, long talks late at night about mathematics and science and almost daily bouts of fucking.

Amanda said yes and moved her antique books and cello into Gayatri's plant filled living room, her three dimensional geometric models next to Gayatri's collection of warp core blueprints.  

Their bed was big enough for the two of them and Amanda commutes to Berkeley and Gayatri to Starfleet Academy.

Amanda leaned to get used to sleepy morning kisses, impromptu dinner parties a couple times a week and having a big slow moving cat under foot.

Life like this was good.

"What was he like?" Gayatri asked once, when they were both curled together on the couch, each with a glass of wine in hand, the living room windows open to let in any early summer. "The man you were pining for in the bar when we first met."

"What makes you think it was a man?" Amanda nudged one of Gayatri's bare feet with her own and Gayatri gave her a far too knowing look over the top of her wine glass.      

Amanda sighed "He was Vulcan, and promised to someone else." She said "we were friends, good friends and sometimes I thought …" Her mind went back to the way Sarek had looked at her, the way he'd treated her when they were together. "No, I know, he cared about me far more than he let either of us believe. But in the end he did the logical thing of course and went back to Vulcan." She shook her head and took a sip of wine. Gayatri's arm went around her pulling her close.

"It's tough."

"Yeah." Amanda said "It was."

She didn't talk about Sarek again, and after that one night Gayatri never asked.

II.

Gayatri was home before she was and already had a bottle of wine open and a glass poured when Amanda walked through the door.

She was leaning against the kitchen counter looking down at the floor when Amanda stepped into the kitchen.

Gayatri looked up and gave her a small smile. "We need to talk." Her tone was so subdued and serious it stopped Amanda in her tracks.

"Is everything all right?"

Gayatri only sighed and fished out another glass, carrying it and the bottle over to the kitchen table. She poured Amanda some wine before sitting on one side of the table and Amanda sat at the other, fingers wrapping around the step of the wineglass.

"What's the matter?"

 "Starfleet as reasigned me." Gayatri said, "to work on Starbase 10 overseeing repairs to ships while in spacedock."

Starbase 10 was far, very far away. Amanda took a deep breath "how long?"

Gayatri wasn't looking at her but instead at the top of the table "Five years, and then they said they would see."

It was like being slapped, Amanda sucked in a sharp breath before she could stop herself and Gayatri looked up finally eyes softening. She reached out across the table, cupped Amanda's cheek.

"That's too long." She said "I'm not expecting you to wait for me."

Amanda didn't really know what to say to that because it was. They weren't married, hadn't even talked about long term commitment and Amanda wasn't sure she wanted that even if they were to put that on the table now.

"I need … I need some time." She stood and walked into the living room stopping in front of the open windows.

It was raining outside, the rain making a nice change from the late summer heat. A cool breeze blew in through the windows and outside the sky was dark but the city burned with the light.

Strong arms slid around her waist, and Gayatri rested her chin on Amanda's shoulder.

"You are an amazing person Amanda Grayson." She said "It has been my honor to do this and so much fun too."

Amanda couldn't help but smile at that and turn in the circle of Gayatri's arms to face her. They looked at each other and Amanda reached up to cup Gayatri's face between her hands.

"Be careful out there." She said "Do good work, work your passionate about, meet great people, and have fun."

"And you as well." Gayatri leaned forward and kissed her, a slow sweet press of lips. "I expect you to have amazing conversations and great sex with all the brilliant beautiful men and women in San Francisco since I'm not going to be able to do it myself."

Amanda laughed at that and then took Gayatri's warm human hand in hers and tugged her towards the bedroom. "Come on." She said "we don't have many chances for this left."

Gayatri laughed and followed her.

Later when they lay together, sweaty but satisfied Gayatri kissed across her face, gentle and careful in the dark.

"If things could have been different …"

"If things were different you wouldn't be in Starfleet and that would break your heart." Amanda said reaching for her and pulling Gayatri to lay next to her. She kissed Gayatri's hair and the side of her neck. "I understand. I don't like it but I understand."

"Thank you." Gayatri curled against her side and neither of them slept that night.

III.

It felt strange to live in her own apartment again,to be the only one who slept in her bed, her's the only dishes in the sink.

Stranger still perhaps because it had been so short a time she'd shared her space anyway.

Her days filled up with work. Her evenings were spent alone, playing the cello or working on various article drafts.

Time moved, as it was want to do. Amanda published her articles and won an award for one. She purchased more houseplants for her apartment, let her hair grow long during the cold months until it would fall into her face as she worked at which point she cut it all off again.

In May a colleague, planning on moving off world, offered up their motorcycle to anyone in the department who wanted it.

On a whim Amanda took it. She had no idea how to ride, had only been a passenger one once, back in college. The instruction course though is not particularly challenging and in the end she felt that the motorcycle wasn't any harder to drive than a ground car, just different in some ways.

"You should take a road trip." Shu-mei Shih, the newest faculty member of the mathematics department, told her over lunch one time. "What's the point of having a motorcycling if you don't take at least one long distance road trip?"

Amanda laughed at that "Where would I go?"

Shu-mei huffed. "It's not where you go that's important when you road trip" She said "It's how you get there."

Amanda just shook her head.

Her world is very small, very contained to her apartment, campus and her favorite coffee shop. She goes out to dinner with colleagues every once in a while but gets a drink or two with some of the engineers and scientists she and Gayatri used to hang out with. Sometimes Gayatri calls her up to chat via holovid. They are still good friends even across so many light years. For the most part though her life is simple, ordered and very solitary.    

And it's all right.

She's all right.

IV.

"Doctor Grayson."

Amanda looks up to see Dr. Stanton hovering in the doorway to her office.

"Yes?" She looks up at him but doesn't shut down the holo projections in blue light of numbers and expressions that fill the space between them.

"I was wondering if you'd be willing to attend a reception on behalf of the department?"

She frowned "What reception?"

"Starfleet is hosting a small reception for scientists who have collaborated with them on dark matter projects. Our department was asked to send a representative and since that is your specialty I thought of you."

She hadn't gotten an actual, formal invitation which made her think she actually hadn't been invited, passed over for some of the senior faculty, who had then refuse to attend. That would have left the department in a bind since it would be poor form not to be represented at all.

Desperation and the need to save face, that was why he was here.

She sighed and he held up both hands.

"It is completely optional of course, I don't want you to feel pressured but it could be a good opportunity for you."

A good opportunity for what? she wanted to snap, to rub shoulders with Starfleet brass? She hardly needed that opportunity, having had enough of it to last a lifetime.

Instead she drummed her fingers against the top of her desk. "Fine."

"Really?" some of the tension went out of Dr. Stanton's shoulders "I mean, think you Doctor Grayson."

She waved her hand in dismissal hoping he would leave her alone now. After another moment of hesitation he did so and she sighed again once she knew he was gone. It had been a long time since she'd gone to a Starfleet event, hopefully there would be some people in attendance that she knew. Maybe some of the officers she'd known form back when she and Gayatri used to throw dinner parties, would be there. It might be nice to catch up.

She took her good suit out of the closet when she got back to her apartment that evening and made sure it still fit. It did, if anything she'd lost a little weight over the last year or so. She picked out a button up dress shirt with fine blue pinstripes to go with her black dress pants and jacket, and hung everything up so it wouldn't wrinkle.

There was a bottle of white wine chilling in the refrigerator, and she took it out and poured herself a glass. In the living room several boards had been set up, their clear glass surface covered the constant glow of strolling numbers. Taking her glass with her, she walked over to one and idly scanned it to quickly remind herself where she'd left off exactly. A wave of her hand stopped the scrolling and a flick of her wrist enlarged a particular expression she was concerned with.

Was it wrong? Definitely not, but could it be better, simpler, more elegant? She tilted her head considering. With one hand she dragged the board around so she could sit on the sofa and look at it at the same. It seemed to her that she couldn't simplify it any further without losing its integrity and meaning but it still niggled at her.

She frowned and shook her head. It would come to her eventually she knew, probably when she was thinking about something else.

Standing she headed back to the kitchen to see about making herself dinner.

 

V.

It was like a glorified cocktail party, drinks and mixing with people most of who she didn't know and didn't know her. The senior faculty had, had the right of it she thought, she should have said no.

She took another, very small sip of her whisky on the rocks. She probably should have had something less potent than whisky but she doubted she'd be able to get through this with anything weaker. All the other women were either in dresses or uniforms and a couple of the older men kept giving her speculative glances she didn't like.

Maybe leaving early was the best way to deal with this.

"Doctor Grayson."

She turned to see Lieutenant Teng of the Starfleet Corps of Engineering was smiling earnestly at her.

"You've met the Ambassador, haven't you?"

Everything stopped and then started again but too slow, and she looked up, every action feeling like she was trying to swim through syrup.

Because this wasn't really happening, it couldn't possibly be happening.

He was exactly as he had been the last time she had seen him right down to black robes and lines of strain around his mouth.

"We have indeed met." He inclined his head to her, "Doctor Grayson."

It was through sheer force of will that she didn't drop her whisky glass because her entire body had gone numb.

Three years.

It had been three years.

"Well …" Teng said looking between the two of them. "I'll let you two catch up." She made a quick get away, which was the wisest move and something Amand a very much wished she could do.

Sarek was looking at her, hadn't stopped looking at her. She'd forgotten what that gaze felt like, serious, attentive and more than she could bare at the moment. The weight of it almost crushed her to the ground and she took a sip of whisky to fortify herself against it. The alcohol burned all the way down, a good reminder that she did indeed still have a body even if it wasn't functioning as it should be.

"Ambassador Sarek." She said, so very grateful that her voice and stead and her tone serious be neutral. "How are you?"

"I am well and you? Are you well?"

"I …" She swallowed hard "I'm fine."

They stood there surrounded silence that was, for the first time, awkward. She really needed to ask this even if she didn't want to know the answer.

"And your wife?" She forced out. "How is she?"

Sarek cocked his head, "if you are referring to T'Rei, she and I are no longer bonded, however last time we spoke she was in good health."

Where everything had been seeming to move too slow, just like that Amanda's world sped up, fast, maybe too fast.

She took a long breath. "Oh, well I'm glad. That she is in good health."

He was not married, he was not bonded or betrothed. For the first time since they'd met he was unattached.

Don't get ahead of yourself Amanda, she thought. After all she didn't know for a fact he was unattached, he could have been betrothed again when things didn't work out between him and T'Rei.

For a moment she considered asking him straight out if he was single, he'd always responded well to brute honestly. She didn't know how Vulcan's viewed things like relationships though. Since it was not a question she would ask a human, she was loathed to ask him without knowing if she'd cause offense.

"So have you been posted here on Earth again?"

"I have not, I am here on business but only for a short time."

"I am sorry to hear that." She said even as her heart sank "I had hoped we might get coffee."

"It that would be acceptable to me as if we could as well." He said "I will speak to my aide and make time, although I will not be staying on Earth for any extended period I do expect to be here a few months."

At least it was something, not much but he wouldn't be gone tomorrow. She wanted to sigh in relief but didn't.

"I look forward to us meeting more than once than."

He tipped his head again "I too would find that acceptable, our schedules permitting."

She would make her schedule permit it if it was the last thing she did. He'd walked out of her life once already. It wasn't until how with him standing right here, all serious, straight lines and an dark, somber clothing that she realized how much she'd missed him, how much she still cared.

Around them people began saying their goodbyes and milling towards the door and Amanda finished her whisky off in one satisfying swallow, letting it heat her blood and belly.

"May I offer you a ride back to your apartment in my ground car?" Sarek was eyeing her empty glass. She nodded since she'd taken a taxi here anyway.  

Amanda set her now empty glass on the nearest tray and followed Sarek to the door.

Sarek offered her his arm and she took it, linking them together. Just outside the Federation building a dark sleek ground car glided up in front of them and she realized he must have a driver. Sarek let go of her arm to open the door and she climbed in, him after her. She couldn't see the driver, since there was a tinted privacy panel in the way, maybe the car was robotically driven. She knew they existed but had never ridden in one before. Her suspicion that the car was indeed driven via autopilot when up when Sarek waved one long, fingered hand across the privacy penal and a computer console flickered to life under his touch.  

"Do you want my address?" She asked and he shook his head.

"There is no need, it has already been programed."

Her brows rose "all right then ..."

Sarek have her what she interpreted as his equivalent of a questioning look and settled back in his seat.  

"You seem displeased."

"No." She shook her head. "It is just considered polite to wait until someone gives you their home address, not look it up on your own."

He bowed his head "I am sorry I have caused offense, it was not my intent."

"It's all right Sarek just ... be careful of it next time and with others."

Especially with others, she thought, she knew him well enough know he was not stalking her and didn't mean it as any sort of threat.

They drove in silence, Sarek's hand followed in his lap and Amanda watched the lights out of her window as they sped by.

"How has your research been Doctor?"

"It has been progressing."

Sarek nodded at that "I read your most recent article, I found it fascinating."

That made Amanda smile, "I'm glad."

"It would appear you have taken on a more theoretical line of research since we last spoke."

"In a way, although there are probably some applications for this particular theory." Amanda shrugged. "I have been thinking about its possible applications for the study of dark matter actually."

"I would be interested in hearing your thought process behind such an application."

"Indeed." She mimicked him a little bit with a half smile "I look forward to explaining my thought process to you. Hopefully where there is display boards for me to illustrate the math on."

The silence that settled between them was comfortable this time, closer to what Amanda remembered having shared with Sarek in the past.

"When we get to my apartment." Amanda said not sure at all of the other until it was already out of her mouth "would you like to come in? for a cup of tea? It's early yet and I'm sure they wouldn't miss you at the Embassy."

Sarek didn't say anything and Amanda wanted to slap herself in the face. Of course he didn't want to, maybe because he was busy or maybe because he knew what it meant to be 'invited up' in western human culture.

"I …I would find a cup of tea acceptable, thank you."

Amanda's head snapped up at that. "Great! I mean, that would be nice. I think it would be nice to have the company."

Easy, she told herself, he very well might not know the connotations of her offer, it didn't seem like the kind of thing you'd need as a diplomat even stationed on Earth. She'd already thrown herself at him once and look how well that had turned out.

By the time they drew up in front of her building the palms of her hands were sweating though.

"Well …" She looked over at Sarek but his usual calm, serious expression gave nothing away. "Shall we?" She opened the door and climbed out of the car.  

The glass-like panels on the front of her building reflected the night sky and city lights making the building look bigger and more intimidating than it usually looked. Amanda led the way into the lobby and to the turbolift.

All the way up she frantically went over what condition the apartment was in her mind. Where their books and PADDs stacked all of the floor in the living room or had she remembered the clear off the couch? Had she run the breakfast dishes through the washer this morning? Maybe she'd left her coffee cup on the counter, too distracted before work. Sometimes she washed her bra out in the sink when she couldn't be bothered to do a whole load of laundry and then left it out to dry. Was there any undergarments in obvious places? Damn it!

He was a warm presence beside her that she was hyper aware of. There was so much heat coming off his body. Sometimes when she shifted her arm would brush against the sleeve of his robe, a small sound that seemed deafening in the small space of the turbolift.

The door slid open and Amanda once more led the way to the door of her apartment before pressing her hand across the pad to open it. She did a quick scan of the room as she stepped in, trying to see as much of the apartment as possible to make sure there wasn't anything embarrassing lying around.

It looked fine, there was no dirty dishes or compromising pieces of clothing, and she had remembered to clean off the couch.

Her display boards were still set up in the middle of the living room with her latest project scrolling slowly across them. Her cello was also out of its case and set up for practice with a music stand floating in front of it's blue projected light showing the piece she'd been trying to learn.  

"Sit." Amanda waved her hand at the couch. "I'll make us tea."

Sarek was studying the math being displayed on the boards and looked at her and then over at the couch. He hesitated for a moment and then sat.

In the kitchen Amanda busied herself making tea. She had no Vulcan tea, but she did have green tea. She remembered the first time they had gone out to the coffee shop that was what Sarek had ordered. The water boils and Amanda two out two mugs, put the leaves into the bottom and poured the water.

Sarek was still sitting on her couch, on the very edge of it actually, hands folded in his lap. He seemed to be alternating between trying to make sense of the numbers of the display boards and reading the spines of the antique books she had on the bookshelves.   

"Here." She handed him one of the mugs, and then sat herself next to him, cradling her own mug in her hands. The mugs were old, ones she'd gotten when she'd moved into her very first apartment, dark brown, roundish in shape and ceramic. For the first time she felt slightly self conscious about them. They were old and ugly and she should have probably gotten nicer ones a lot time ago but it had seemed like such a waste when these were still perfectly functional.

"My thanks." Sarek too a small sip of the tea.

Amanda took a sip of her own tea and then sat back letting out her breath in a long sigh. Her gaze went to the display boards. Should she bring up the math? He'd said he wanted to hear more about her work and she did have access to the display boards, or …

"You said you'd never heard a cello played live before."

He turned to her, eyebrows drawing together.

"You said you'd only heard recordings." Amanda wasn't going to give herself time to back out of this now that she'd started. "I could play for you." She nodded with her chin at her cello "I could play for you now."

Sarek looked at her for a moment, just looked and then nodded slowly. "I have no objections."

Now her palms were really sweating, from the heat of the mug but also the nerves that twisted up her stomach and sent fine tremor through her body. She stood, putting her mug on the coffee table before should could change her mind. Pulling off her dress jacket, left it folded on the couch beside Sarek before crossing the room.

Sitting behind her cello, Amanda unbuttoned and rolled up her sleeves. Not that she needed her sleeves rolled up, but she prefered her arms unencumbered when she played.  

The piece on the music stand in front of her was difficult and she didn't feel quite as if she'd mastered it yet, but if she took the time to pull up another one she'd lose her nerve completely. Letting the neck of the cello rest against her shoulder she took a breath, positioned her fingers and touched and touched her bow to the strings.

She could feel the pressure of the bow as it glided across the string all the way into her hand, could feel the vibration of the sound where the cello pressed against her chest and shoulder. There was two layers of play for Amanda, the proper movements and notes and then the sound. The movements and notes were were something that you learned, the sounds were organic flowing. Structure with imagination together made art.

At least that was what was supposed to happen, in the moment Amanda could only ever hear her mistakes, the places where things didn't fit together quite right or her performance still needed work. She often recorded herself though and sometimes when she was alone very late at night when she played it back she could hear it, the thing that she strove for, the beauty and the power. As close as she would ever come to perfection.

The last notes died away and Amanda let her bow fall to her side.

Her gaze rose to meet Sarek's were he still sat quiet and still on her sofa. He looked so out of place there in his dress robes holding one of her ugly mugs. It was the first time they'd seen each other in three years and here he was, sitting on her sofa listening to her play the cello of all things. She laughed and watched his eyebrows rise in question.

"It is." She said when her laughter had died, standing and setting aside her cello, "Very good to see you again."

"You play with skill." Sarek said, watching her as she crossed the room back over to him.

She dipped her head in acknowledgment. "Thank you."

They sat and stared at each other for a moment. Then Amanda was done: done with all of it, the heartache, the carefulness, done with waiting.

She stood and crossed the room to him, reached out to cup his face and flinched away from her a little.

She said. "I want to kiss you."

His lips parted in a soft sigh, and he held up two fingers; asking for a Vulcan kiss.

She traced her fingers along his own, felt the shuddered that went through him the way his hand trembled slightly under hers. Then she pulled him close for a human kiss and he went willingly into her arms.

They explored each other with lips and the tips of their fingers. When he kissed along her neck, tentative and awkward like he'd never actually done it before — but maybe thought about it — she could almost see the pieces falling together the pattern forming and spiraling up. It was beautiful, elegant and simple. She almost cried, and his hands were feather light against her waist almost not there at all, like birds afraid to land.

She pushed him away finally and stood. He still sat, clothes completely rumpled, lips kiss bruised to dark green. He looked dazed, a little bit lost and completely out of his depth. She smiled and reached for his hand.

"Come on." She said pulling him up and towards the bedroom. "Please."

He looked from her to the doorway that led into her bedroom and then back at her before letting himself be pulled.

They collapsed onto Amanda's bed, a tangle of limbs and wanting. Amanda tried to undo the clasps of Sarek's robes but it proved to difficult and so she left it preferring to trace the hard angular lines of his face. He undid the clasps himself finally and she unbutton her own shirt and kicked off her suit pants.

Sarek was as long and lean naked as he was clothed. He was all angles and elegant lines, like a geometric puzzle for Amanda to solve. She followed the lines of his abdomen with her fingers up to his chest which was covered in this dark curls. His nipples were hiding there and when she pinched one he gasped moved restlessly against the bed.

"Is that all right?" She ask and he looked up at her eyes wide and expression vulnerable.

"Yes." He admitted as if it was a secret only for her to know.

She pinched his nipples again, first one and then the other, kissed down his body, his collarbone, his chest, his stomach, kissed each of his slender thighs.

His cock was already half hard between his legs and she took it in her hand, feeling the heat and the weight of it and stroked until he was fully erect.

"I want to suck you." She said and he looked down at her uncomprehending.

"Do Vulcans not do blowjobs?"

He still looked confused.

"Oral sex." She clarified.  

"For women yes — " He started and then broke off in a gasp as she took him into her mouth. His whole body went rigid; back arching, hands grasping at the bed sheet. It took only a few second for him to come, hard and gasping, as if he was falling apart. Amanda pulled away, letting him spend between them onto the sheets. She watched his face, the way his eyes were impossibly dark, his face flushed, his lips parted.

She watched his breathing slow, begin to steady and even out. He reached for her, offering her a kiss, his fingertips still shaking a little when she touched him.

"Please." He said. "Let me."

"Yes." She moves so she could lie beside him, watched him as he rolled over to kneel between her legs.

His long fingers hooked into her panties and pulled them down and off her legs. He leaned forward and kissed her belly, in the human way, slow and hesitant and then looked up at her like it might have been wrong. His fingers feathered across her thighs and she raised her hips. His fingers touched her there; stroking, exploring.

God but she needed. She closed her eyes as tight as possible arched her back as she felt his tongue, hot and knowing. He licked and explored until she was moaning, and gasping for him. His fingers found her clit, rubbing around it as he licked her. Her body clenched, and she could feel the heat and the wetness where he touched her. She was so close, so close, tremors running through her every time the tip of his fingers pressed and circled right there. The fire spread from between her legs up into her belly. It was so good, so good.

Everything tightened and came the explosion of white-hot pleasure, almost too much. She thought she cried out but she wasn't sure.

When she opened her eyes he was sitting up watching her one hand resting lightly on her though.

"Was that acceptable?" He asked, like it was an actual question, like she might say no.

"Yes." She licked her lips still feeling weightless and comfortably warm. "Yes it was."

He inclined his head a little in understanding and came to lay beside her

"When you are next free." She said tracing the lines of the wiry but tight muscles across his chest and sides. "I would like to take you out riding on my motorcycle. People keep telling me I need to take a road trip and I would very much like it if we could take it together."

He was silent for so long she thought he wasn't going to answer at all. Sleep was making her limbs heavy and lid of her eyes droop. She drifted off half between sleep and waking, comfortable and warm with his presence by her side.

"Very well. " He said finally so soft she almost missed it. "A road trip together would be acceptable."

VI.

When she woke he was gone but that was all right because she hadn't expected him to stay.

She sighed and got up took a shower and made herself coffee. She had a class to teach and a meeting in the afternoon. She trusted he would contact her when he was next free. He had said he would after all in all the time she'd known him he had never lied.

Their cups still sat on the coffee table and she cleaned them up and put away her suit.

She could still feel his hands on her skin, his lips against hers, the way he'd been so unsure. He could not possibly be a virgin could he? He not than he was certainly not practiced with women. It was exciting actually, rather titillating to think that she was the more experience of the two. But he had been so sweet and so attentive.

She dressed and gathered up satchel and headed for the University.

A week later he sent her a message

_At 13:00 hours._

And she started to get ready.

VII.

She met him in front of the Vulcan embassy on her motorcycle. She was wearing her riding leathers even though the day was quite warm.

He was wearing trousers for the first time since they'd met, tight and black as was his shirt. It showed off the lines of his body even though she doubted that was the point.

Her throat went dry when she saw him and she swallowed hard. "Ready?"

"Yes." She handed him a helmet that he put on and then swung onto the bike behind her. His arms went around her waist, holding her tight and something lodged in her chest; wild and precious.

"Hold tight." She said even though he already was and then kicked the bike into motion.  

They hit the highway and headed out of the city. There was farmland here and they spread by but Amanda kept on going, heading towards Nevada.

The hot wind whipped at them catching at her clothes pulled at them as they flew on, past the foothills and towards the desert.

Hours they rode, Sarek a comforting weight against her back arms securely around her waist.

She knew where they were going, she'd planned this after all.

When the land gave way to desert she turned off the main road onto a narrow winding one that lead up.

On top of a hill sat an old observatory, no longer used but with a breathtaking view of the sky. She stopped next to it and climbed off, pulling her helmet free. Sarek did the same and came to stand next to her.

"Look." She pointed out at the vast expanse of land, still so untouched and wide, never ending array of sky. It was wild and beautiful and difficult, like what was between them.

At her shoulder Sarek was silent; watchful and still.

"It's beautiful." She said. "The most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"Come with me." He said softly, and she turned to look up at him.

"What?"

"When I go back to Vulcan." Sarek said. "Come with me. I will secure your position at ShiKahr Academy but I ..." He looked down at her for a long moment almost as if lost for words.

But she thought that would be illogical to be so unsure and overcome.

"I would have you near me." He said finally.

She stared up at him unsure what to say or to thing. Go to Vulcan with him, to be near him … God but she wanted —  she wanted him — she didn't want to be apart again.

"Yes." She said. "Yes."

His expression did not change but he reached for her, pulled her close and kissed her in the human way.

 _Yes,_  her whole body sang,  _yes, yes_. And his lips agreed.  

 


End file.
